Lessons From A Stolen iPhone

So you're in Mexico (Cabo San Lucas to be exact) and flying back to the USA. You send a reassuring text to a friend once you land letting them know that you'll be out of customs in 30 minutes and to show up on time at the north curb. You're nearly off the plane when you realize... WHERE IS MY iPHONE?

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Women, carry a purse that zips shut instead of just snapping, especially if it's a large one. And make sure that the zipper is in front of you (not under your arm behind you) when you're carrying it. If you must carry a snap purse, zip items into internal pockets.

When practical, don't use your valuable electronics in public. There are times when it defeats the purpose of the item not to use it (such as calling a friend to pick you up at the airport), but in general thieves won't steal what they don't know about. I make a point of not using my iPod on city buses, and I remember being warned not to use nice phones on the subway. Part of it is just foiling pickpockets, but it also helps avoid attracting muggers.

background - I grew up in the Bronx and took a crowded subway into Manhattan every day for high school. I passed through and hung out in more train stations, bus depots, and airports than I want to count. I traveled alone and in groups, as a kid and with kids, and at all hours of the day and night. There are few things that have changed in 40 years.
1. Always know where you are, where you are going, and who is around you. Make sure those around you know you know. The daft, lost, tuned out folks look like targets. Don't zone out.
2. keep valuables in a front pants pocket or inside chest pocket - a good pickpocket can still get your cell, but a good pickpocket is probably going for your wallet or cash anyway
3. when dealing with miscreants, use cash
4. agreed - apply passcode to phone
5. get some sort of silicone sleeve for phone. Makes it less slippery and harder to drop and for someone to slide from your pocket
6. keep your ipod in your pocket. you can turn it on and off without anyone knowing if it's a first generation or brand new
7. get security involved. call the phone, repeatedly. Make yourself a nuisance. While you are still on airport property, airport security can be a real friend (especially if you haven't cleared customs yet, he can't run).

Yup, checks here have the check writer's full name (more than one name, if it's a joint account) and mailing address on it. I'm not sure why, I'd never thought to question it before. Fortunately they're not used for much beyond paying rent - debit and credit cards have taken over in stores, and most bills can be paid online.

There are lots of anonymous alternatives available:
- cash in a thick envelope
- Paypal,
- a store gift card,
- a money order
- one of the cash services like Western Union
to name a a few that would have made more sense.

How much in monthly charges, long distance and data charges did he have to pay before finally recovering the phone. Would it have been simpler, maybe cheaper to write the phone off, and have the phone company disable the account, "Brick it"?

I found an iPhone a few months ago and had no idea what to do to find the owner. I thought that if the owner was able to track their phone to MY house, they might assume I had stolen it, so I took it to the police station. I really thought the owner would not think to go there, that they would have the phone inactivated and buy a new one or that their phone was insured. They did not even lock the phone and a bad guy could have taken their personal and contact info.

@Pollywog - You did the right thing, and for the very reasons that you mentioned. Nobody wants to be accused of stealing an iPhone. Apple should really require each phone to lock with a PIN, or perhaps steal the "pattern" unlock from Android. :)

I recall reading a story a while back about someone whose phone was stolen and they tracked it down because the thief was using the stolen phone to take pictures of their friends, not realizing that there was a programming running that would email the pictures back to the owner.

I recently recovered my wife's stolen laptop. She had emails in her Outbox, and when the thief launched Outlook they were sent. One of them came to me. The originating IP happened to be a cable ISP. I documented all of the routing and time information for the investigating officer, and prosecutor. They got a warrant and the cable company provided them with the address of the customer. I was shocked to find out it was a house, I thought it would be a library or coffee shop. I already knew who had stolen the laptop, so I thought the cable customer was going to be some unsecured wireless near his home. Boy was I wrong. The house belonged to the person he sold it to. I would have loved to seen his face when he answered the door. The Police offered immunity for testimony and the guy couldn’t give them the information fast enough. The thief is now locked up awaiting trial, sadly so is the laptop. The laptop was only three days old. I was out of town, so no security/recovery software had been installed on it. Luckily none of her data had been transferred either. My wife’s IT skills were just enough to get her mail account setup, luckily that was enough to recover it. The funniest part of the whole thing is that my wife was going $100 as a reward for the laptop, the thief sold it for $140.

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